Paramore's 'After Laughter' Is Something New, Built From Pieces Of The Past

What holds Paramore together? The beloved Tennessee band's decade-plus career is littered with false starts and laborious successes: More musicians have left the band than remain inside of it, and those who have departed did so caustically. Lifelong friendships have ended to keep this pop-punk powerhouse alive, and yet, its remaining members now find themselves at a place of critical reinvention. Being forced to constantly reevaluate what Paramore looks like has made them largely indestructible: When it feels like they've got nothing to lose, they shed their skin and become new. In 2017, Paramore is a pop band, far removed from the emo days that created them. They are a pop band that survives and thrives, and it's been a journey to get here.

At the end of 2010, after founding brothers Josh and Zac Farro left the group, Josh detailed the . He referred to the pop-punk project as "a manufactured product of a major label," breaking down a then-muddled understanding of their dynamic: Frontwoman Hayley Williams was (and remains) the, essentially confirming most of what Josh said while making irrelevant his most biting claims and revealing that the band would continue on without the Farros.